Conflict Kitchen

Vegan-Friendly

4.4/2
votes

Conflict Kitchen is a take-out restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries that the United States is in conflict with.

Restaurant, Food Court or Street Vendor, Organization

Conflict Kitchen is a take-out restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries that the United States is in conflict with. The food is served out of a take-out style storefront, which will rotate identities every four months to highlight another country. Each Conflict Kitchen iteration is augmented by events, performances, and discussion about the culture, politics, and issues at stake with each country we focus on.

We are currently presenting the third iteration of Conflict Kitchen via La Cocina Arepas, a Venezuelan take-out restaurant that serves homemade arepas, grilled corncakes served to order with a variety of fresh fillings. Developed in collaboration with members of the Venezuelan community, our arepas come packaged in a custom-designed wrapper that includes interviews with Venezuelans both in Venezuelan and the United States on subjects ranging from Venezuelan food and culture to issues of geopolitics.

Through food, wrappers, programming, and daily interactions with customers, Conflict Kitchen creates an ongoing platform for first-person discussion of international conflict, culture, and politics. In addition, the project introduces a rotating venue for culinary and cultural diversity in Pittsburgh, as future iterations will focus on North Korea, Libya, and more.